Community Highlights: Meet Hillary Allen of Hillygoat LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hillary Allen.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I came to running a little later than many athletes, I started running after playing tennis is college, and during my graduate studies at the university of Colorado denver where I was in a PhD program for neuroscience and physiology. At first it was simply something that made me feel grounded and alive. Over time, it became a way to explore limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally. What truly shaped my path, though, was a life-altering accident during a trail race in Norway in 2017, when I fell off a mountain and nearly lost my life.

My recovery was long and uncertain. I had to relearn how to walk before I could run again. That period forced me to confront fear, identity, patience, and belief in a completely new way. It also showed me, very clearly, that performance is never just physical—it’s deeply mental. The comeback became more than returning to sport; it became about rebuilding confidence and learning how to work with the brain under pressure and uncertainty.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to return to the top level of the sport, including representing the U.S. at the Trail World Championships and continuing to compete professionally in trail and ultra running. But alongside racing, I became increasingly drawn to the psychological side of performance—why we endure, how we persist, and what allows athletes to perform when everything gets hard.

That curiosity led me into formal training in mental performance coaching and sport psychology. Today, I’m still competing professionally and I also work with athletes of all levels, helping them develop the mental skills to navigate pressure, fatigue, setbacks, and big goals. My journey has tied together three worlds—elite sport, recovery from trauma, and performance psychology.

I’ve also written a book, Out and Back, a Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. If anything, the injuries and the recovery process have taught me how nonlinear progress really is. After my accident, and even in the years since, I’ve dealt with recurring setbacks—more fractures, nerve issues, overuse injuries, and the constant tension between pushing forward and needing to pull back. Each time you think you’ve figured your body out, something new humbles you.

One of the biggest struggles was identity. Running had always been how I expressed myself and measured progress, so when that was taken away—or became unpredictable—I had to learn how to detach my self-worth from performance. That’s much harder than it sounds. There were also long stretches of loneliness in rehab, watching everyone else train and race while I was stuck doing the slow, unglamorous work of rebuilding.

Pivoting into gravel cycling came out of both necessity and curiosity. I needed a way to stay connected to endurance sport without the same impact load, and biking gave me that outlet. At first, it was frustrating to be bad at something again—to be a beginner after years of being elite. But it also reminded me why I fell in love with sport in the first place: learning, adapting, and feeling strong in new ways.

The biggest challenge through all of it has been patience—learning to listen to my body without fear, trusting timelines I couldn’t control, and redefining success again and again. Those struggles are now the foundation of my work in mental performance coaching, because I understand firsthand what it feels like to want everything back immediately—and how powerful it is when you learn how to stay steady through uncertainty.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Hillygoat LLC?
My work today lives at the intersection of endurance sport, science, and mental performance. I coach trail and ultra runners, cyclists, and high-driven athletes who want not just better results, but more sustainable, resilient performance. My specialty is helping athletes understand how the brain and body work together under stress—how fatigue, fear, pressure, and doubt actually shape performance—and then giving them practical tools to train those systems just like they train their muscles. I lead workshops and also give talks (keynote and other) to businesses, at events and schools.

What really sets my coaching apart is that it’s built from both lived experience and scientific training. I’m a professional endurance athlete, a world championship competitor, and I’m finishing my graduate work in applied sport psychology. I’ve lived the injury cycles, the comebacks, the identity shifts, and the high-pressure environments. That means I don’t just teach theory—I help athletes apply it in real races, real setbacks, and real life.

Brand-wise, I’m most proud of the community we’re building through my coaching and Hillygoat Run Retreats. It’s not just about performance—it’s about creating environments where athletes feel supported, challenged, and seen as whole humans. The retreats combine trail running, mental skills training, storytelling, and science-backed education in a way that’s deeply immersive and transformational.

I want people to know that this isn’t “positive thinking” or generic mindset work. It’s structured mental performance training: self-talk, attention control, confidence building, emotional regulation, and resilience under fatigue. Whether someone is training for their first trail race, a 100-miler, or navigating a comeback from injury, my goal is to help them build a mind that can adapt under pressure—not just push harder.

At the heart of everything I do is the belief that performance is not just about how strong your legs are—it’s about how you respond when things get hard. That’s the work I care most about, and that’s the work I’m building this brand around.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Resilience.
Not in the “never break” sense—but in the ability to adapt, learn, and keep showing up when things don’t go as planned. My career has been shaped as much by injury, setbacks, and pivots as by podiums. What’s mattered most is being willing to reframe failure, stay curious, and rebuild—again and again. That same resilience is now the foundation of my coaching work. It’s what allows me to help athletes navigate uncertainty, pressure, and fatigue with clarity instead of fear.

Pricing:

• All details can be found on my website: hillaryallen.com

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hillaryallen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hillygoat_climbs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hillaryallenrunner/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillary-allen-8872b063/
• Twitter: https://x.com/hillygoatclimbs